Mohammad Derakhshan.
Apoptosis at a glance: Death or life?.
Pak J Med Sci Jan ;23(5):979-82.

Apoptosis or programmed cell death that is genetically regulated is a process for killing cells. It is essential for the normal function of organisms and therefore variety of diseases including autoimmunity and cancer result from any defect in this physiological process. Two pathways are responsible for signalling apoptosis: intrinsic or mitochondrial pathway and extrinsic or death receptor pathway. As a final result of this process, cell destruction activated by a family of cysteine proteases (caspases) takes place. This article summarizes current knowledge of apoptosis. This is a review article.

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